What Hi-Fi? Sound and Vision - Industry insider

2015: a silence falls across Digital Britain

Andrew Everard — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 09:20:00 GMT

At least someone’s rubbing their hands with excitement over the Digital Britain report: within minutes of the final version being published, our email alerts pinged, boinged and made other comedy noises to signal the arrival of a press release from Pure Digital.

Hardly surprising, that, given the fact that the report actually namechecked the company’s Highway DAB-to-FM in-car converter as one of the solutions to the big problem of getting us all listening to digital radio on the road come 2015.

And 2015, in case you haven’t heard by now, is the date by which the Government reckons existing FM stations will all move to DAB, freeing up space for AM broadcasters in turn to upgrade, and making it possible for a whole new layer of ‘ultra-local’ services to spring up.

The Digital Radio 'Upgrade'
By the end of 2013, the report reckons, the criteria for change will be met: 50% of listening will by then be to digital radio, national DAB coverage will be comparable to FM coverage, and DAB local radio will reaches 90% of the population and all major roads. At that point the wheels will be set in motion, so to speak, and we will be on the path toward the Digital Radio Upgrade, due two years later.

All of which may have come as a bit of a surprise to the head of BBC Radio, Tim Davie, who told a conference two months ago that "continuing current [DAB radio] purchase trends would not lead to radio switchover in our lifetime".

Now I’m no ‘back to analogue’ luddite, and I'm not harking back to the kind of golden age of radio illustrated above. Neither do I have anything but admiration for what Pure Digital done to popularise digital radio with an ever-expanding range of receivers and spread of prices. And Pure’s parent company, Imagination Technologies, has done fine work on making the enabling technology for digital radio receivers, and of course will do rather nicely out of the impending switchover.

But for the rest of us, the future may be Digital, but it probably won’t be an Upgrade – at least on the current showing of DAB in the UK.

Digital = more choice
Yes, digital radio gives us more choice, and for example makes Radio 5 Live listenable rather than being lost in the crackle of AM interference, whether at home or on the move. At least it does when you can actually hear it, and you’re not in one of the many signal dead-spots, or putting up with the squelching, ‘bubbling mud’ effects of marginal DAB reception.

OK, so FM’s not without its own reception foibles, but I’d suggest that the effects of a weak analogue signal – a bit of hiss, maybe – are a lot easier on the ears than all those digital burps and squeaks to which DAB is prone.

No, my main problem – at least from an audio perspective – is that DAB sounds pretty nasty, at least by comparison with a decent FM signal. That’s no small part due to the low bitrates being used for many stations – well short of the theoretical quality available via the format, and with even the best bitrates currently on offer bettered by at least some stations streaming on the internet.

Even the BBC is streaming at better quality than it’s broadcasting on DAB. Its UK iPlayer radio streams of its national stations are now 128kbps AAC, giving audio quality technically on a par with MP3 at anything up to twice the data-rate, while Radio 3 is running 192kbps AAC.

Quantity, not quality
But it’s on sound quality that the Digital Britain report has got things seriously wrong, with its talk of set-top DAB/FM converters and many more stations. Frankly, having read the pages on digital radio several times now, I haven’t seen a mention of audio quality anywhere.

All of which means that radio services once praised throughout the world for their audio quality have every chance of being lost in a miasma of mediocrity – real ‘never mind the quality, feel the width’ stuff.

True, there is the prospect of DAB+, offering better audio quality through more efficient encoding. It uses AAC rather than the current MP3 encoding, and promises much in terms of better sound for a given bitrate. And yet the Digital Britain report, while suggesting that it’s desirable for future digital radios to be compatible with DAB+ – as most new models already are – is pinning its Digital Radio Upgrade strategy firmly on current DAB standards.

Quantity, you see, not quality. A quick fix, not a long-term solution – and what’s more a quick fix for a problem that doesn’t actually exist.

And it’s not just those of us who have made a serious investment in getting optimal audio quality from FM radio – decent tuner, good rooftop aerial and so on – who are going to be disenfranchised by the Digital Upgrade: I’m willing to bet there are hundreds of millions of radios in use throughout the country, all of which will be fit only for the tip come the day of the mighty Upgrade.

Radio on the TV?
OK, so the digital radio proponents will tell you that by 2012 everyone will have the means to listen to radio via their digital TV equipment, which they have to have because that’s when analogue TV goes phutt. Oh, and they’ll be streaming radio via the Internet, helped by a growing broadband provision paid for by the Next Generation Fund supplement being imposed on all our landline bills.

Next Generation Fund supplement? It’s a euphemism. Bit like Digital Radio Upgrade, really…

All well and good: radio on digital TV, radio on the interweb – even if the universal 2Mb/s provision to which the Government is committing itself by 2012 is pretty pathetic when you see what speeds are already being achieved not just in other countries, but by services in some parts of the UK.

Thing is, the majority of analogue radios likely to be consigned to the scrapheap in 2015 are used in places where neither of those technologies are going to be of much help: in bathrooms, up builders’ ladders, on the beach, in the garden – oh, and in the nation’s tens of millions of cars, vans and trucks.

Radio. It’s portable.
Most people have radios scattered all over the house, both standalone and built into everything from alarm-clocks to mini-systems, and all those are going to be useless, too. And that’s before we even get on to the nation’s transport fleet, which relies on those annoying RDS-driven interruptions to tell us whether the road ahead is blocked. Or at least was blocked an hour ago.

Lord Carter’s Digital Britain report acknowledges that the personal nature of radio means we want to be able to listen to it anywhere we are. But then he goes and spoils it all by saying something stupid like making radio portable requires ‘a dedicated digital medium – DAB’.

Portable since the pirates
No, soon to resign Government advisor, NO! We’ve been listening to a perfectly good portable radio medium since the days we hid under the bedcovers with Radio Caroline in a hearing-aid pink plastic earpiece, thank you very much.

And as I said, most of us have perfectly viable radio receivers all over our houses – I have relatives who still use old Roberts, Hacker and Bush sets on which they’ve been listening to ‘the wireless’ for half a century or more. And they’re as likely to be streaming Wake Up to Wogan over a home network as I am to be taking a laptop with me to keep up with the cricket, tennis or F1 while out on a walk. Or indeed a drive.

So we’re going to have DAB radios down to £20 by 2013? All very laudable, except I can go into my local shopping centre and pick up an AM/FM portable for about a third of that price. Right now.

And one more point: let’s get all warm, fuzzy and tree-hugging for a moment. Digital radio uses a lot more power than analogue, and while there’s time for work to be done on making digital radio chips more energy-efficient, it’ll be a long time before a digital portable radio will go for as long on a set of batteries as the old analogue portable we have in the garden shed.

I’m not exactly sure I can ever remember changing the batteries in that…

Where will all the analogue radios go?
Oh, and consider the environmental implications of what must be hundreds of millions of analogue radios being consigned to the scrapheap or recycling centres. That’s a lot of electronic landfill, most of it made in the days before RoHS regulations took the more harmful stuff out of the manufacturing process, or a lot of recycling. I wonder whether anyone’s thought of that…

Let’s not forget, too, that streaming radio over your digital set-top box or your home wi-fi to a computer or streaming client is also using bags more energy, and all this just to get a squelchy reception of a station that doesn’t sound as good as it used to a decade ago.

Router, data centre to send it the programmes, computer to listen to them? TV on just to listen to the radio? Watch that electricity meter spin.

That’s progress for you – and so, in closing, and with the predictions of warmer summers on the way, I’ll leave you with this thought:

If you’re planning to take your radio to the beach after the day of the mighty Upgrade, make sure you have a good long extension lead.

Welcome to Digital Britain.

JAPAN/RUSSIA: Sony targets the new affluent and seasonal demand to open up Russian market

Andrew Everard — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 10:19:00 GMT

One of the recovery strategies outlined for Sony is a focus on markets beyond the traditional domestic, European and North American territories. And in an interview with Japan's Nikkei business daily, it's been outlining how it's tackling the huge population of Russia and the former Soviet countries.

Kenichiro Hibi, who heads up local division ZAO Sony Electronics, explained that it's no longer simply concentrating on the obvious major markets such as Moscow and St Petersburg. Instead it's moving its focus out into smaller provincial cities and targeting specific local needs with products such as computer speakers with built-in FM tuners, allowing users to listen while they surf.

And it's noticed that there are very distinct seasonal variations in sales, brought about by the Russian climate. TVs and home entertainment equipment sell strongly in the long Russian winter, while the Spring sees strong performance in the likes of camcorders and Walkman players, as the people take the first opportunity to get out and about in the warmer days.

Sony benefits from strong brand recognition in Russia, Hibi says, not least because the company was a major force in broadcast equipment there in the Soviet times. He also notes that 'Demand for high-end products is also strong among wealthy people who have benefited from higher prices of natural resources.'

It seems the oil and gas billionaires, for all their fortunes may have been impacted of late, are still big Sony fans.

And while the market is dominated by a handful of big discount operators, ZAO Sony is not only building up its Sony Shop and Sony Centre presence in the Russian market, but also sending its staff out to 20-30 provincial cities to run 'X-Day' promotions.

They work alongside shop staff to improve sales techniques and offer promotions on products, and Hibi says these campaigns increase sales by 30-50%.

So why is Hibi so confident of the wisdom of investing heavily in the Russian market in these uncertain times? Simple, he says: "When the Russian market grows, it does so explosively."

CHINA/JAPAN: the changing face of consumer electronics retailing

Andrew Everard — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 11:35:00 GMT

It doesn't seem so long ago that China was being seen by the more forward-thinking Japanese audio and video companies as the next big frontier. It was a market ripe for development as an increasingly affluent middle-class developed.

Marantz, to take one well-known example, has invested heavily in Chinese promotion of its products, sponsoring concerts shown live on national TV and seeing Brand Ambassador Ken Ishiwata featured on prime-time talk-shows.

China is changing, and while the more xenophobic may gnash their teeth and wail at find old British brands falling into the hands of companies based there, and others subcontracting out manufacture to Chinese factories, the domestic Chinese market is overlooked at companies' peril.

After all, we're talking about a country with a population of just over 1.3bn, or about a fifth of the world's total. And last year they spent some 792bn RMB, or around £71bn, on consumer electronics.

So it's hardly surprising that one of Japan's largest electrical and electronics retailers, Laox, which has been having a somewhat rocky time of late, now finds itself the subject of negotiations with a Chinese counterpart, with a view to the Chinese company taking a major stake in the Japanese one.

The suitor is Suning Appliance Co, based in Nanjing, and one of the largest electrical retailers in China.

It has 700 shops so far, and plans to open 200 more this year. It employs getting on for 100,000 people, and in 2007 – the latest figures available – it had sales of 85.4bn RMB, or about £7.7bn.

By comparison, Laox stores are centred around Tokyo, with 12 of its 14 shops in the famous Akihabara 'Electric Town' . From a peak of 120 stores in 2001, and revenues of around Y214bn (around £1.37bn), it's now predicting an income of just under £85m for the current financial year.

Oh, and a loss. Again.

The Japanese financial press may be talking in terms of Suning looking to acquire Japanese expertise and improve its sales efficiency, which lags behind Japanese standards, but almost any way you examine the figures being bandied about, it looks like Suning taking a majority share in Laox, and for very little investment.

If reports are to be believed, a 30% stake in Laox, making it the biggest single shareholder, could cost the Chinese company as little as a billion yen, or about £6m. Which is sort of money found down the back of the corporate sofa in Suning terms.

It seems it's not just in the motor industry that Chinese companies are proving to be adept at bargain-hunting these days.

US/KOREA: Wireless 7.1 surround moves a step closer

Andrew Everard — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 14:46:00 GMT

The home cinema dream of full-range 7.1-channel surround without wires all round the room has moved closer to reality with the announcement of a deal between Californian company Focus Enhancements and Korea's Anam Electronics.

Who they? Well, Focus is the maker of the FS848 High-Definition Digital Wireless Audio IC, while Anam makes products for quite a few companies whose names may be a little more familiar. And the two have done a deal to include the former's technology in the latter's products.

Anam makes products for a variety of well-known names

All of which means that products from the likes of Denon, Harman/Kardon, Marantz, NAD, TEAC and Yamaha could soon start appearing with onboard wireless surround.

The Focus system allows the transmission of up to eight channels of uncompressed 48kHz/24-bit audio with forward-error correction and a low-latency fixed 2ms end-to-end delay to avoid lip-synch errors.

Transmission is on the 5GHz U-NII band for low interference, and the active speaker end of the transmission chain allows both speaker phase adjustment and driver alignment parameters to be set.

There's also built-in SpeakerFinder technology, allowing the system to 'find' each speaker in the room and allocate it to a channel, using ultrasonic transducers with an accuracy of 1cm.

In addition, there's also MyZone technology, allowing the listening 'sweet spot' to be shifted to different positions in the room. Or it's possible to use another ultrasonic transducer, this time in the remote control handset, to let the system home in on the listening position.

Sounds intriguing – watch this space...

US: Blu-ray back-ups to become legal next year

Andrew Everard — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 11:18:00 GMT

Good news? From next year it should be possible to make a legal high-resolution back-up copy of Blu-ray Disc movie titles, which will please those with media centre/server systems.

Bad news? The 'managed copy' facility will only be available on newly-released titles, and will require you to buy some new hardware. But of course...

The facility has just been agreed by the body responsible for administering the Advanced Access Content System (AACS) copy-management system used on BD titles, and is subject to approval by studio, manufacturers and other Blu-ray Disc licensees.

But provided all goes according to plan, from some time in 2010 it will be possible for buyers of most discs to make one high-res copy for back-up purposes.

However, this isn't a sign that all bets are off when it comes to BD copyright: studios will have tight control over copying, and may choose to charge for the first copy or any rights they offer to make subsequent copies.

And it won't be possible to make copies of your current discs using your present BD player and a recorder: at the moment players aren't set up to offer this 'managed copy' facility, and compatible machines aren't expected before midway through next year. The same goes for the software - the movies themselves.

When the system is in place, it's expected that a compatible player, when loaded with a copy-enabled disc, might offer a menu option of making that copy. If the selection is made, the player will contact an online authorisation centre for permission to allow the copy to be made, and copy-protection would be lifted for that one copying procedure.

Subsequent attempts at copying would be blocked unless the authorisation centre has been instructed to allow them.

You see? All that paranoia about what is going upstream on that BD-Live/Profile 2.0 Ethernet link had a sound basis, after all...

The studios have to make a decision by December this year, and if they sign they'll be required to make all releases compatible with managed copying, although they won't actually have to allow the copying until some time in the first half of next year, which is when AACS authorisation servers are ready. Further down the line, the studios may have their own authorisation servers.

Copies will be allowed to recordable Blu-ray Disc or DVD media, as a download to a Windows Media DRM-compatible portable device or hard drive, or to memory devices.

But there's a hitch for owners of iPods and iPhones – copying to these devices isn't approved, and Apple is yet to approach the AACS licensing people to allow copying from BD titles to its products.

Things are going to get interesting over the next 12 months...

Millions of US TV screens will go blank tomorrow as digital switchover is completed

Andrew Everard — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 15:35:00 GMT

It's been delayed, it's been the source of wrangling in Congress, and it's had consumers totally confused, but tomorrow the analogue TV signal is finally switched off in the States. And that could mean millions of viewers suddenly have no television.

Back in February, after extended lobbying, newly-installed Obama signed through legislation to delay the switchover to June 12 just days before it was due to take place. But reports suggest that over 10% of US households still aren't ready, and that the switchover may particularly affect the poor, the elderly, the disabled and non-English speakers.

What's more, Obama has ruled out any further delays: in a statement last week he said that "On June 12 the nation’s full-power television stations will switch to all-digital programming. The transition to digital will free up airwaves for broadband and enhanced emergency communications for our police officers, firefighters, and other first responders.

“In February, I worked with Congress to postpone the deadline television broadcasters had to end their analog signals, because it was clear that millions of Americans would have been left in the dark if the conversion had gone on as planned. I directed key members of my administration to reach out and help Americans, especially those in our most vulnerable communities, to make the switch to digital television.

“In the months since then, we have worked hand in hand with state and local officials, broadcasters and community groups to educate and assist millions of Americans with the transition. The number of households unprepared for digital television has been cut in half. Still, some people are not ready.

“I want to be clear: There will not be another delay. I urge everyone who is not yet prepared to act today, so you don’t lose important news and emergency information on June 12.

“And I encourage all Americans who are prepared, to talk to their friends, family and neighbors to make sure they get ready before it’s too late.”

Much of the difficulty has surrounded the administration of a voucher scheme, under which each household has been entitled to two $40 vouchers towards digital TV equipment. Many households applied late, or have not received their vouchers, and at one point there were shortages of low-priced digital converter boxes.

The stocks of converter boxes have now recovered, and authorities are advising those who still haven't received their vouchers to buy a box and install it, simply so they have access to vital information in the case of an emergency. And those with spare vouchers are being urged to pass them on to neighbours who haven't received coupons in time.

More than $2bn has been spent by the federal government to provide the coupons, but a report in the New York Times last weekend suggested some 12m households still may not be ready. Some 3m of those have no access to cable or sattellite TV, which will be unaffected by the switchover, while 9m more may have sets with no converter.

According to research, major cities such as New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Philadelphia are among the most vulnerable, while Puerto Rico tops the list simply because it has the largest proportion of homes without cable or satellite. In New York alone, it's thought over 400,000 homes will wake up to no TV tomorrow.

The Federal Communications Commission is bracing for a storm of complaints from those with no reception: it's spending $40m on a call centre, which will be fully staffed tomorrow and over the weekend.

But the best comments on the whole fiasco comes from commerce secretary Gary F. Locke. He identified the fact that Americans tend to procrastinate, saying that “There are so many people who are always waiting until the last minute, whether it is college students doing term papers, or people filing taxes, or people like me who wait until Christmas Eve to do their shopping.”

And he added “Too many people don’t know the difference between digital and analog. I didn’t even know myself until a few months ago when my brother-in-law explained it to me.”

It's good to know the best advisors are being used...

No-one's saying 3D won't be coming to Blu-ray Disc in a big way, eventually. But will it be good enough keep us watching?

Andrew Everard — Mon, 11 May 2009 15:57:00 GMT

Rather as Hollywood clung to novelties in the cinemas – 3D, Sensurround, perfumes pumped into theatres and even tingling electrical charges through the seats – in an effort to hold back the tide of TV in the 1950s and 1960s, so it's seeing the latest generation of 3D movies, such as Bolt (above), bringing back audiences unimpressed with lacklustre conventional releases.

But the cinema is only part of the equation: if the studios are going to make 3D fly as a home cinema medium, they've got to find ways of making the sofa experience as good as the one in the tip-up seats. And current 'red and cyan' anaglyph systems just aren't going to do it.

That was the message from a session at the Digital Hollywood industry heads-together in Santa Monica, California, last week. Just making DVDs and Blu-ray Discs 3D isn't enough: most are downgraded from the superior cinema formats to anaglyph, first used in cinemas decades ago, and suffer as a result.

Standards are needed
What's more, although it's possible to present the latest advanced 3D systems and movies at home right now, the lack of a unifying standard for hardware and software is going to confuse consumers, and may explain why the 'one size fits all' anaglyph system is favoured.

For the studios, there's big money at stake: 3D movies such as Bolt and Monsters vs Aliens (above) pull in more ticket revenue than their standard 'flat' versions. But the 3D movies cost more to make – up to $20m on one of these CGI extravaganzas – and that extra investment needs to show benefits in the DVD/BD revenue, too.

After all, it's unusual for a movie to make its money back in the cinemas: the studios depend on disc sales and paid-foir downloads to ensure a return.

And with Hollywood luminaries such as Jeffrey Katzenberg, one of the founders of DreamWorks SKG, and now CEO of spin-off company DreamWorks Animation, warning that it may be at least five years before 3D takes any hold in the home. the studios are looking at ways to accelerate the technology.

Katzenberg suggested that consumers who've just bought HDTVs will take a lot of persuading to buy again in order to get 3D, so there are companies working on ways of bringing advanced 3D TV to existing sets. 3D production company Kerner New York, a spin off from Lucasfilm's Industrial Light and Magic, is one of these.

Speaking at Digital Hollywood, Kerner CEO Neal Weinstock told trade journal Video Business that the company is working on a device to bridge the gap between anagyph and the current state of the art cinema 3D systems. "“Let’s say anaglyph is at a one and [state-of-the-art theatrical] is at a 10, then this device can allow TVs to show 3D at a level five,” he said, but declined to say when the device would come to market.

No 3D Blu-ray Discs before 2011
And industry analysis company Futuresource Consulting says it will be at least 2011 before commercial 3D Blu-ray Disc releases will hit the shops, although it's expected TV manufacturers will continue to push 3D-ready TVs in the meantime.

Futuresource expects that by 2012 about 10% of US households will have TVs able to show 3D programming, but comments that in order for the potential to be realised, standards will need to be formalised.

Profitability modelling for the permeation phase
And I think I just about understand this prediction: “Our probability modeling shows the permeation phase will kick in from 2011, where, among other initiatives, we’ll see new 3D movie releases on Blu-ray, remasters of classic blockbusters like Star Wars, The Matrix and The Lord of the Rings,” said Jim Bottoms, managing director of corporate development at Futuresource.

“By 2012, more than 10% of U.S. and Japanese homes will be 3D-enabled, and Western Europe won’t be too far behind with 6% household penetration. Moving forward, a new generation of videogame consoles will begin to emerge, fully embracing 3D technologies.”

Could 'lifesize' plasma TVs just a millimetre thick be the way ahead?

Andrew Everard — Mon, 11 May 2009 14:31:00 GMT

This is the 3m x 2m display from Shinoda Plasma, the company founded a few years back by one of the leading lights of Fujitsu's abandoned flatscreen programme. It's being promoted as the first screen on the market able to show lifesize human beings, and is aimed at the entertainment and information markets.

And while it's not the largest plasma screen on the market – at 145in it's just short of the 150in-diagonal set shown by Panasonic last Autumn – it has advantages of its own. For example, it's only 10% of the weight of conventional screens, and uses half as much power as similar-sized screens.

It's also scalable, being composed of modules a metre square, which will make even larger screens possible.

Oh, and did I mention that it's just 1mm thick, and can be wrapped around curved surfaces? That's all made possible by the use of Plasma Tube Array technology.

Developed by the company led by Tsutae Shinoda, still known as 'Mr Plasma' within Fujitsu, the technology uses thin glass-lined tubes to create the picture elements.

The 145in screen has a power consumption as low as 800W, and weighs around 7.2kg. That's about 213kg less than Panasonic's 103in set.

Memories, coincidences and revelations: Ken Ishiwata's 30th anniversary

Andrew Everard — Thu, 07 May 2009 13:11:00 GMT

Marantz held a lunch in London yesterday to mark a significant milestone, and launch some special celebratory products.

The occasion? 30 years since Marantz's Brand Ambassador, Ken Ishiwata – the man behind the KI Signature range of products – joined the company. And the products? The KI Pearl SACD player and amplifier, about which more in our news section.

30th anniversary? Well, almost – as Ishiwata mentioned in an overview of his life in hi-fi, he actually joined the company in 1978, having previously worked for Pioneer. But his association with Marantz – and hi-fi – goes back much further.

Discovering how much further involved the answer to one of the hi-fi industry's unfathomables: just how old is Ken Ishiwata?

First amplifier at ten years old
"I was born in 1947, at the same time as the start of hi-fi. The mono LP first went on sale in 1948, but they were promoting it the previous year, and by the time I was ten, and the first stereo LPs were being made, I was making my first amplifier.

"About that time, a friend of mine's father, who was a real audiophile with his own wonderful listening room, invited me round to hear a record by Julie London" – a singer whose music Ishiwata still uses for demonstrations getting on for 40 years later.

"I knew the disc, but as soon as it played, it was like Julie London was there. 'Wow!' I said' 'What did you change?' And he pointed to a gold fascia - it was the Marantz Model 7c preamp" (part of the classic range including the Model 8 power amp and Model 9 monoblocs).

If you can't afford it, copy it...
Ishiwata was clearly captivated, even as a teenage junior high school student, so he did the only thing he could: he borrowed the preamp, drew out a circuit diagram, and set to work building his own. And audio DIYers will be gratified to know that it didn't work – at least until he'd worked out what the problem was – and even then it didn't sound anything like the original.

"I thought, 'Holy **** – what's wrong with this?', and that's how I came understand how much difference you could make with a change of tube, capacitors or resistors, and how even wiring and grounding makes such a difference."

At the end of the 1960s Ishiwata joined Pioneer, one of many Japanese companies largely copying British and American hi-fi designs, and later moved to Europe as a liaison between the local Pioneer operation and HQ back in Japan.

Incredible European products
"Then there were so many incredible European products: these days Braun, for example, is best-know for shavers, but then it made amazing systems, and great tuners – in those days AM tuners, of course."

Another aspect of his work was to improve Pioneer's standing in car audio, then dominated by the likes of Blaupunkt and Becker: "I had to study those products and companies, and feed back to Japan, as then Pioneer was nowhere by comparison."

Oh, and as if that wasn't enough, he was also responsible for the development of the Pioneer PL-12 turntable, considered to be one of that company's classic products. "We had a model called the PL-11, and we developed that to create the PL-12. I remember each one cost us $32 to make!"

The move to Marantz
In 1978 Ishiwata was headhunted by Marantz, and sent to Japan for three months, where he found "The Marantz understanding of amplifiers was way beyond me: the company spent five years training its engineers in the American way of making amplifiers."

But he also discovered some inherent distrust between the European and Japanese parts of the operation: the company had a section of a speaker factory in Belgium entirely turned over to quality control, "and every single product arriving from Japan was unpacked, measured and tested.

"And every single one was rejected. So I went onto the testing line to find out why, and it turns out the people doing the testing were making mistakes – the products were fine!"

The KI Pearl SACD player

In the early 1980s Marantz was sold to Philips, just as the compact disc was about to be launched: Ishiwata says "That was another great opportunity for me: I had been working with analogue audio until then, and didn't know anything about digital. I learned so much from the Philips engineers."

It was about that time Ishiwata was contacted by Marantz founder Saul B Marantz, who said "I have done as much as I can with mono and stereo LPs; now it's your turn to do something with compact disc."

Happenstance and the first tuned products
But it was happenstance that led to the first Ishiwata-tuned products: in the early days of CD, Marantz had 14-bit CD players, whereas most of the rest of the industry was selling 16-bit machines. And as we know even these days, in audio big numbers sell, so 16-bit is better than 14-bit, right?

"So we had this huge stock of 14-bit players, and they weren't selling. Some of my colleagues wanted to dump them on the market for just £100 each, but I said 'We're not going to do that', and instead I spent just £8 apiece tuning them, then took the tuned models out to reviewers and retailers.

"We sold 2000 pieces in two weeks."

The Marantz KI Pearl amplifier

Thus began the tweaking that led to the KI-Signature range, and now to the KI Pearls. So what was the idea behind the new products, Ken?

"Simple: I wanted the people using the KI Pearls to have the same experience I did all those years ago, listening to Julie London on my friend's father's Model 7C preamp."

To celebrate the KI Pearls, Ken Ishiwata has produced a limited edition book and Super Audio CD of unique recordings. This will be given to buyers of the products, and is also available to buy from the KI Pearl website.

New look What Hi-Fi? Sound and Vision: exclusive preview

Richard Melville — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 14:13:00 GMT

From Wednesday 6th May, you’ll be able to buy our new-look June issue. If you're a subscriber, you’ll get it this weekend. But what’s so important about the new design?

The new look isn’t all about the odd splash of colour here and there of course – there are enhanced versions of your favourite sections and some completely new ones altogether.

The important thing to remember is that nothing has been lost – you’ll get more reviews, photos, words and a magazine that’s simply easier to use. That means a clearer contents page, introduction pages to review sections and Sound Advice is now a fully fledged letters page which relies on your forum questions.

News also takes into account what we do online and pulls the facts and your thoughts into the article and discusses the big stories in detail.

Finally, there's a new Playlist section that covers films, music and games and a new back page called 'I remember when...' which looks at old tech and revives an old issue cover and advert from that year. In the case of the new issue, that year is 1979 and kicks off with a look back at the first ever Sony Walkman.

There are new splashes of colour of course (art bods insist on them) but, most importantly, we’ve taken care to show you kit in the way you want to see it. Want to see the valves inside an amp? No problem. Want to know what the CD tray looks like on a new luxury player? We’ve got that covered too.

And the mix of new photography always shows kit in the best possible way and in context, reflecting how it will look in your home. Finally, there’s the odd helpful icon which will tell you if a review has a companion video review or podcast discussion online.

You’ve already seen the cover (above) so here are a few new-look pages and some snaps of the new issue rolling off the printing press last week in Cornwall…

First Test intro, with added contents list on left and new panel...

Huge news opener with exclusive photography and your feedback

Supertest with bold new colours and new photography throughout

Group Test opener with new icons, more words and smaller borders...

Playlist - for all your music, movie and game reviews...

Sound Advice = more queries from the forum, with expert advice by one of the test team

Managing Editor Jonathan Evans examines the final pages...

Whizzzzzz! The issue goes to print at supersonic speeds.

The pages fly around the printing press like a scene from Charlie and The Chocolate Factory

HDMI Standards Organisation thinks about a more secure connection. At last.

Andrew Everard — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 11:28:00 GMT

You may remember a blog piece I wrote a couple of months back about a locking system for HDMI plugs.

If you don't, no worries – this isn't a test: the upshot of it was that an enterprising company in the States has come up with a little clamp, the HD EZLock, to hold an HDMI plug in an HDMI socket. And it works.

But it seems the body responsible for policing the HDMI interface, the HDMI Standards Organisation, is now taking a serious look at the problem, and highlighting some companies working on, or launching, connectors with some kind of 'latching' mechanism to hold them in place.

As the HDMI SO says, "Let’s face it: cables sometimes come unplugged. Kids, dogs, vacuum cleaners, and the law of gravity all conspire occasionally to unseat the HDMI connector."

It points out that the HDMI interface was "was originally designed for a thinner, relatively lightweight cable, whereas today’s high-performance cables can be considerably heavier. Since HDMI cables cannot be self-terminated, many users end up with connections that are a bit longer than they need, adding still more cable weight.

"And with many flat-panel displays, the HDMI ports are located on the bottom of the unit, facing down, further enhancing the role of gravity."

"Further enhancing the role of gravity" – I like that...

One of the connectors being highlighted by the organisation is the MagLoc, from US company Torrent. This uses a magnet in the plug to keep the connection solid, plus a an auto-adjusting sliding sleeve to let the plug cope with sockets of various depths.

The Torrent cables also have an integrated diagnostic function: VeriFYI checks signal transmission and shows all is well with an LED, as shown below.

The HDMI SO says that various mechanical latching systems are also under development, and expected to pass compliance testing soon.

These include latching prongs retracted by pushing down a button in the plug housing when connecting, and engaged when the button is released, and a system where the plug is inserted as usual, then locked in place with a swivel switch to activate the prongs.

The report concludes by saying that PC applications are likely to drive the need for a more secure connection, noting that "Of course in the PC world, latching connectors are the norm."

Couldn't have put it better myself – I'm just amazed it's taken this long for the HDMI people to realise...

Sennheiser HD800 - hands-on preview, plus how the £1000 headphones are made

Clare Newsome — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 15:17:00 GMT

Launching a £1000 pair of headphones in the midst of a global recession wouldn't have been the first choice for Sennheiser, but after experiencing its new HD800 flagship (pictured above) in action, we're sure they'll find an audience.

We won't get a review sample of the Sennheiser HD800s until April – which is when the headphones hit UK shops – and you'll be able to read our full review, including comparison with the Grado GS1000s, in our issue out in May.

However, after getting excited by the January launch, followed by a sneak preview in the UK recently, we jumped at the chance for a longer listen – and to see how Sennheiser headphones are made – at the company's HQ near Hanover, Germany.

Why new high-end headphones?
Sennheiser's previous flagship headphones – the awesome £10,000 electrostatic Orpheus, complete with tube amp – were launched back in 1991, and haven't been available new for almost ten years. That's left the HD650 as the top Sennheiser model: fine headphones for around £250, but no match for lovers of higher-end hi-fi (and higher-end headphones!)

The HD800s have been in development for years, with Sennheiser's designers going back to basics – and registering a clutch of patents on the way – to build a modern high-end headphone.

For example, the 56mm transducer in the HD800 is the largest currently found in dynamic headphones, designed for incredibly pure sound reproduction with exceptional detail. Its vibrating element is a ring, rather than the conventional circular style, which allows more of the surface area to vibrate without distortion. Sennheiser claims total harmonic distortion of less than 0.02 percent (at 1kHz and 100dB sound pressure level).

Here's how it all fits together:

Headphones that act like speakers
Another headphone rethink is the way the earcups fit on your head and direct sound into your ears. The HD800s are designed so the soundwaves are directed into your ear at a slight angle – more as they would be when you're listening to speakers. Sennheiser claims this results in a more natural sound, with good spatial extension, but with a purity of reproduction that far exceeding that of speakers.

Try before you buy
With so much behind these new headphones, it's perhaps not so surprising that Sennheiser will only be selling the HD800 headphones via dealers who've been trained on all the new model has to offer, and who also sell suitable headphone-amplifier partners. Sennheiser is really keen that prospective purchasers experience the HD800s first, so don't expect to see these headphones for sale online anytime soon...

How are headphones made?
All Sennheiser HD800 headphones are hand-made at the Hanover production facility. In theory, they could make 5000 pairs a year, but manufacturing capacity is flexible to meet demand.

If all components are to hand, it takes around 45 minutes for a series of skilled workers to assemble a pair of HD800s – after which each set of Sennheisers is tested (of which more later).

First up is the build of the patented HD800 transducer, which involves attaching the voice coil to the ring-shaped membrane (see below). The HD800's voice coil is capable of taking more power than previous Sennheiser designs: it'll handle up to 4W of thermal power compared to the 1-2W of the HD650, for example.

Sennheiser's technicians – who work flexitime (80 percent start at 5am!) – check components at each stage in the process to reduce failure rates further down the line.

And a closer look at the heart of the headphones:

The main body of the headphones are then built up, with workers wearing special gloves (see below) to protect the components. The latter includes specially tooled magnets, which Sennheiser claims are the largest in the headphone world.

You'll also note that the earcups aren't covered (with fabric, for example), as Sennheiser believes adding an extra layer could increase the potential for sound-impairing vibrations.

The care and precision involved in the manufacturing process is clear. The woman below working on connecting the cabling would take on all-comers at the game Operation, we can tell you (and we would have told her, if our German was up to it...)

More earcups await their turn – incidentally, the batch below were sitting alongside a production line for in-helmet headphones for soldiers. This Sennheiser facility makes a wide range of specialist and consumer products, including recording-studio microphones to noise-cancelling headphones (of which more in another blog).

Next up, the HD800 headbands – a patented, multi-layered design combining metal and high-quality plastic in yet another combination designed to minimise vibrations.

Each pair of headphones has an individual serial number – Professor Dr Jorg Sennheiser owns pair No1 (and you'll see him wearing them later)...

And it's then onto the next stage of production, where cabling is added. Sennheiser doesn't weave its own wires, but the HD800 cables are made to its specification from another German supplier.

The four-strand, high-performance cable is made from silver-plated, low-oxygen copper, shielded against electromagnetic disturbance. The HD800's earcup connectors and 6.3mm jack plug are gold plated for optimum contact.

The picture below of almost-finished headphones shows quite clearly how those ear-cups are set at a slight angle, to tilt those tunes into your ears.

Finished headphones go through a series of quality-control tests, including time in a reduced-sized anechoic chamber (think a sensory-deprivation-experiment version of the cupboard-under-the-stairs) – the test equipment is pictured below.

Finally, our chance to listen
From here, the next step for the headphones that pass the quality tests is their new satin-lined home – an impressive presentation box that's befiting that four-figure price tag.

Back in the Sennheiser HQ's presentation room, we were greeted by a row of these boxes (see below, open and shut), each housing a pair of HD800 headphones hooked up to a T+A SACD player via a Lehmann Black Cube headphone amplifier (£750).

As you may just about to make out from the top one of those two pictures, we were provided with a 'sturdy' selection of test discs – being Germany, there was a rather predictable preponderance of AOR, including Toto – then left for an extended listen.

Standing up in a presentation room, as the world's press squabble over sets of headphones and the most in-demand discs, is no substitute for the longer-term, comparative test we'll soon put the Sennheiser HD800s through, but it gave us an impressive flavour of these £1000 beauties.

For these are great-looking, superb-feeling headphones. They look modern, are incredibly comfortable, and have the fit and finish their price-tag demands. Everything from the main body to the cable and connectors seems solid without being clunky or heavyweight.

Open to detail
As you'd expect from an open-backed design, they neither particularly block out external noise nor stop their own sounds from leaking out into the room: in so many ways (not least the mugging risk!) these are not the headphones for public transport. On the plus side, they produce an open and airy sound: the comparisons with speaker- rather than headphone-listening are not idle claims.

Listening to the SACD of The Who's Tommy, there was the pomp, presence and detail you'd expect a high-end pair of headphones to deliver. Even more poorly-produced, modern pop CDs – thank you, Mark Ronson – fared surprisingly well. We can't wait to hear them against those direct-rival Grado GS1000 headphones – that'll be a shootout our whole team (with their assortment of ear sizes and musical tastes) will want to be involved in.

Meet the Sennheiser team
And talking of teams... Sennheiser has its own golden-eared listening panel that tests every prototype – and finished model – it produces. "It's a group of 16 people: a range of ages, both male and female, and including those with plenty of listening experience and those without – all with good hearing," explains Axel Grell, Sennheiser's senior acoustic engineer (pictured above right, with Professor Dr Jorg Sennheiser)

"We look for a range of ear-shapes, too," Grell adds, before cheekily adding "but we don't have anyone with ears like your Prince Charles – perhaps we should!"

He notes that different countries can prefer different sounds, too, but decided not to explore an idea to offer alternative versions of the HD800 'tuned' for specific markets around the world.

Will HD800 technology trickle down to cheaper headphones?
Axel and his team continue their testing and development work – which includes laser-testing of components, as shown below – and he doesn't rule out some of the patented technology from the HD800 appearing in more affordable headphones. Or indeed it being scaled up to even higher-end products. Orpheus MkII, anyone?

JAPAN: are TV consumers nesting, resting or giving new sets the swerve?

Andrew Everard — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 11:54:00 GMT

Some interesting figures coming out of Japan at the moment about TV sales, not least a healthy increase in the uptake of larger flatscreens.

But look a little closer and things aren't quite as clear as they seem.

Research company BCN, which analyses data from electronic sales systems used by retailers, says that 31.3% more TVs were bought in Japan last month than in February 2008. And much of the running was made by screens of 40in or above.

However, the volume increase wasn't matched by gains by value: that was up just 14.3%, despite the larger screens being bought. The average price paid last month was ¥102,800, or around £755.

Also up were sales of DVD and Blu-ray Disc recorders, showing year-on-year gains of 28%, helped in no small part by consumers buying a TV and a recorder as a package.

BCN reckons that the boom in TV buying is, paradoxically, down to the economic crisis: people can't afford to buy cars and other big-ticket items, so they're turning to more affordable home electronics instead. You just can't keep the Japanese away from their national hobby – shopping.

Ready for digital switchover
All well and good so far, but BCN also reports that Japanese sales of set-top boxes for digital terrestrial TV are exploding, ahead of an analogue TV switch-off due in Summer 2011.

Sales of digital STBs in December and January were double those of the same period a year ago, and last month saw sales 3.4 times as high as in February 2007, BCN saying that cost-conscious consumers are avoiding buying a new TV in favour of the cheaper add-on box alternative.

That's being helped by tumbling prices: the set-top boxes once cost £300-£350 in Japan, but now prices are down to an average of ¥13,900, or just over £100.

Dark days in the glass business
However, the companies making the most basic raw material for LCD TVs – the glass – seem unconvinced about the future health of the market. Nippon Electric Glass, which has added more glass-making kilns every year since 2002, is curtailing its expansion, and will only be investing half as much next year as it did in the past 12 months.

It's also halting plans to build new processing lines in Japan and Taiwan, citing a fall in demand for the glass substrates on which LCD screens are made. The company says its existing facilities have only been running at 50% capacity since December.

The same is true of Sumitomo Chemical, which makes polarising plates for LCD panels. It's been running at half-speed at plants in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, while glass-maker Asahi Glass is also delaying the start of building new plants in South Korea and Taiwan.

It seems that while Japanese consumers are buying more TVs, they're not buying as many as they could – and that, plus declining overseas sales, makes the glass-makers see things as more half-empty than half-full.

Last blog from the DTG (Digital TV Group) conference

dominic dawes — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 15:40:00 GMT

4:00pm

Last up, we have Stephen Petheram, director of services for Microsoft TV. His talk is largely a series of hyperbolic stats about the (rude) health of the video games industry. And why not? Games consoles like the PS3 and the X-Box 360 are leading products in home entertainment today.

A few facts: the video games industry has tripled in size since 1996, and is a $30 billion industry. 90 million households already use next-generation consoles – by which he means the two consoles mentioned above, plus Nintendo's Wii – and 41million have internet connected games consoles.

X-Box live has led the way in terms of opening up the online experience of console users. But will it work as a platform for delivering TV?

4:15pm

Petheram, inevitably, says the answer is yes. Now he's discussing the benefits of Windows Media Extenders, and talking up the X-Box 360 as a future source for TV. Some interesting stuff about the interagtion of web and TV services, but this is turning into a bit too much of an X-Box advert for my liking....

The future? 'A merging of conventional TV/video content and gaming,' he says. What follows next is a blur of words, some of which include '24/7' and 'immersive experience'. I think I've just overdosed on buzzwords.... Can someone unplug me, please?

4:30

Ok, I'm out. It's been a fascinating day: some downbeat talk of the recession, and a lot of optimistic talk of merging web and TV content and services to create what could be a vibrant future for us, the consumers. Things might move a tad slower than some of the people here would like, but the future of TV looks pretty exciting to me.

Live from the annual conference of the DTG (Digital TV Group): part 3

dominic dawes — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 14:40:00 GMT

Next up is Suranga Chandratillake, the CEO and founder of video search engine, Blinkx. Right now he's doing a brief history of search engines, but hopefully we'll get into the real 'future of television' next.

Basically, his schtick is that the sophistication of video searching – and the new ways that video content can be 'tagged' on the web – is central to the development of Internet TV. With so much diverse and diffuse content, the consumer will need new ways to navigate it. The answer, he says, is sophisticated video search.

You can check out this guy's website here.